Five people were injured and two of them seriously when a ride malfunctioned Thursday night at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.

Riders were getting off the Vortex around 9pm when it unexpectedly started up again injuring five people ranging in age from 14 to 39.

An EMS source told WNCN that all five were initially unconscious but that three regained consciousness. All of the victims were taken to WakeMed. Th same EMS source said that one of the injured is suffering from serious head injuries while the another is suffering injuries similar to a concussion.

Tragedy at the fairgrounds: Five people were injured - and two seriously - when a ride at the North Carolina State Fair unexpectedly started up again just as passengers were exiting

'The ride had stopped and they were fixing to offload when the ride started off again, but that is preliminary,' Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said in a briefing Thursday night. 'It is going to take quite a while to talk to all these people.'

The sheriff's office is interviewing 35 to 40 people to figure out exactly what went wrong on the ride, and is soliciting any video of the accident.